Current Situations and Recommendations for Development of Agricultural Sci-Tech Park District of Luzhou City

Guoping DU, Xiangjuan ZHU, Qiqun XIONG, Min NI, Yuancai SHUI

Jiangyang District Office of Science & Technology and Talent Work of Luzhou City, Luzhou 646000, China

Abstract The agricultural science and technology park is a demonstration carrier for the assembly and integration of agricultural technology, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the modern agricultural production. It is an inevitable choice and important way to realize the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. This paper reviewed the construction background, functional characteristics and development history of agricultural science and technology parks. It analyzed the current development situations of the provincial agricultural science and technology parks in Jiangyang District, Luzhou City of Sichuan Province. Then, it summarized its experience in park construction and compared with surrounding national and provincial agricultural science and technology parks. It found existing problems including insufficient industry-university-research integration, low level of agricultural intensification, weak functions of public service platforms and brand effect, and insufficient exploration of tourism resources. In view of these problems, it came up with recommendations for development of agricultural Sci-Tech Park District of Luzhou City, including gathering scientific and technological resources, enhancing scientific and technological support, strengthening the high-quality development of the park economy, and building a national 4A-level excellent scenic spot.

Key words Agricultural Science and Technology Park (ASTP), Current development situations, Problems, Recommendations, Jiangyang District of Luzhou City

1 Introduction

Now, the socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and China’s economy has shifted from a rapid growth stage to a high-quality development stage. The No.1 central document has repeatedly proposed "improving the construction level of agricultural science and technology parks". Both the

13

Five-Year

Plan

on

Science

and

Technology

Innovation

and

the

13

Five-Year

Plan

on

Agricultural

and

Rural

Science

and

Technology

Innovation

proposed to further accelerate the innovation and development of national agricultural science and technology parks. Six departments including the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly formulated the

National

Agricultural

Science

and

Technology

Park

Development

Plan

(2018-2025) and

National

Agricultural

Science

and

Technology

Park

Management

Measures

. The construction of agricultural science and technology parks has important practical significance for promoting rural revitalization and innovative development.

2 Functional characteristics of agricultural science and technology parks

2.1 Policy background and necessities

As a demonstration carrier for the assembly and integration of agricultural technology, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the modern agricultural production, the agricultural science and technology park is an inevitable choice and important way to realize the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. In 2000, the Ministry of Science and Technology, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, the State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Agricultural Bank of China, initiated the construction of the national agricultural science and technology parks. No.1 central document also made deployment of the park work for several times. The agricultural science and technology park has played an important role in promoting the agricultural technological progress and enhancing the competitiveness of agricultural products in the market. Especially after China’s overall victory in poverty alleviation, the park construction has a more important significance in promoting rural revitalization and innovative development. More policy resources and project funds will be concentrated in the national agricultural science and technology parks and comprehensive revitalization and development of rural areas. The 19National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to implement the strategy of rural revitalization, and the No.1 central document repeatedly proposed improving the construction level of agricultural science and technology parks. Both the

13

Five-Year

Plan

on

Science

and

Technology

Innovation

and the

13

Five-Year

Plan

on

Agricultural

and

Rural

Science

and

Technology

Innovation

proposed to further accelerate the innovation and development of national agricultural science and technology parks. Six departments including the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly formulated the

National

Agricultural

Science

and

Technology

Park

Development

Plan

(2018-2025) and

National

Agricultural

Science

and

Technology

Park

Management

Measures

. It was planned to build an agricultural science and technology park system with distinct levels, complementary functions, distinctive features, and innovative development, led by the national agricultural science and technology park and based on the provincial agricultural science and technology park by 2020. By 2025, there will be 300 national-level agricultural science and technology parks, driving the development of 3 000 provincial-level parks, and building the parks into innovative highlands for the cultivation, transfer and transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and the core carrier of agricultural high-tech industries and their service clusters, important position for rural mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative, a model of integrated development of industry-city, industry-town, industry-village, and comprehensive rural reform.

2.2 Functions and characteristics

The agricultural science and technology park takes science and technology as the leader, projects as the carrier, enterprises as the support, talents as the foundation, and benefits as the goal. It is a comprehensive platform that promotes the transformation of agricultural science and technology into actual productivity under the conditions of the socialist market economy. As a new model of agricultural economic development that is supported by modern science and technology, armed with modern industrial equipment, and operated by modern organization and management methods, agricultural science and technology parks have four significant characteristics: high (high scientific and technological content, high conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements, and high comprehensive economic benefits), new (new technology, new model, new mechanism, and new system), gathering (technology intensive, capital pooling, industry clustering), and integrated (integration of technology, production, and markets, integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and integration of industry, city, town, and village). Besides, the agricultural science and technology park is a base for personnel cultivation and technical training, plays the typical demonstration role of the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and explores the path of transformation from traditional agriculture to high-yield, high-quality, and efficient modern agriculture. It has four functions: innovation and entrepreneurship, achievement demonstration, achievement transformation and promotion, and professional farmer training.

2.3 Development history

The development of agricultural science and technology parks includes three stages: pilot construction (2001-2005), comprehensive promotion (2006-2011), and innovative development (2012 to the present), and has now entered the stage of innovation-driven development. As of the end of 2019, 270 national-level agricultural science and technology parks have been approved for construction, and the development pattern of the parks with distinctive characteristics, typical models, and remarkable scientific and technological demonstration effects has been initially formed. There are many typical national agricultural science and technology parks, such as Shouguang National Agricultural Science and Technology Park in Shandong Province, which aims to build China’s Vegetable Silicon Valley and has a national 4A-level tourist attraction-vegetable high-tech demonstration park covering an area of 666.7 ha and has formed a Shouguang Mode that can be reproduced and promoted. Daqing National Agricultural Science and Technology Park in Heilongjiang Province takes "Chinese rice bowls" filling more "Daqing grains" as the development direction to build demonstration of maize, rice and coarse grain in accordance with the concepts of "grain as head and food as tail" and "agriculture as head and industry as tail" to realize the development from "original brand" to "high-grade, sophisticated and advanced". Another example is Zhongxian County National Agricultural Science and Technology Park in Chongqing Municipality promotes the development of the citrus industry with scientific and technological innovation, realizes "development from a seed to a cup of orange juice and high-value utilization of peels", creates a regional brand of "Zhong Orange", and creates a national-level export agricultural product quality and safety demonstration area. So far, 11 cities of in Sichuan Province, namely Leshan, Ya’an, Yibin, Neijiang, Nanchong, Bazhong, Suining, Mianyang, Guang’an, Deyang, and Chengdu have successfully applied for construction of national agricultural science and technology parks. In 2020, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the 93 provincial agricultural science and technology parks approved for construction in the province since 2001 and found that 20 parks were excellent, 26 parks were qualified, and 5 were non-qualified, and 42 parks did not participate in the evaluation and voluntarily gave up their park qualifications.

3 Development of provincial agricultural science and technology parks in Jiangyang District

3.1 Overview

In 2011, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology approved the construction of a provincial agricultural Sci-Tech Park District, Luzhou City. At present, Huangyi and Dongyunba core demonstration areas have been built. Huangyi Demonstration Area takes brewing-specific sorghum and longan as the leading industries. With the guidance of science and technology and the demonstration of the park, an organic sorghum and high-quality longan demonstration base with an area of 333.3 ha has been built. The secondary industry in the park is based on the wine industry, based on the development of the entire industrial chain in the Luzhou Spirit Centralized Development Zone, and has established a 100 000 t solid liquor brewing base and supporting industries such as packaging materials and printing. The tertiary industry in the park is dominated by modern service industries such as cultural tourism, conventions and exhibitions, and finance. At present, the park has built a national solid-state brewing center, a national wine inspection center, a wine packaging product quality supervision and inspection center, a provincial-level mass innovation space, a national star creation world, an academician cultivation workstation, an agricultural high-tech enterprise, and 12 national science and technology small and medium-sized enterprises, established 10 scientific and technological service institutions including liquor industry technology research institute, engineering technology research center, scientific and technological achievements transfer and transformation, patent services,

etc.

The park actively develops fruit wine, health care wine, Chinese herbal medicine brewing wine and other beverages, to extend the liquor industry chain. Dongyunba Demonstration Area is a comprehensive modern agricultural demonstration park with high-quality vegetables as the leading industry, integrating urban agriculture, ecological agriculture, and leisure agriculture. The park builds Eight Zones and One Belt, namely, a planting promotion zone, an environmental conservation zone, a new village demonstration zone, a research and development display zone, an e-commerce logistics zone, an aquatic vegetable zone, an entrepreneurial incubation zone, a farm experience zone, and a famous and high-quality fruit belt. The planned area of the park is 1 333.3 ha, and the built-up area is 866.7 ha, developing 400 ha of open field vegetable base, 200 ha of fruit base, 133.3 ha of rice fish and crab breeding base, 20 ha of intelligent greenhouse vegetables, 20 ha of farmer mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative incubation park, and 13.3 ha of agricultural products processing center. In addition, it has built facilities and equipment such as cold storage, refrigerated trucks, agricultural product distribution centers, and has tractors, planters, threshers, rotary tillers, dryers, drones and other agricultural machinery. Also, it has built facilities and equipment such as the Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring system, agricultural product quality traceability platform, and remote video monitoring platform. Dong Yunba Demonstration Area is a classic case and demonstration base of the agricultural supply-side structural reform in Sichuan Province, the provincial agricultural theme park (Dong Yunba vegetable life theme park), provincial-level popular science base, the first batch of pilot bases for direct supply of vegetables to Hong Kong and Macau, and a national 4A-level scenic spot. The model of Dong Yunba’s vegetable industry promoting rural revitalization was listed as a national rural revitalization case by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for promotion.

3.2 Main practice and experience

3.2.1

Government promotion and policy support are an important guarantee for the accelerated park development. On the basis of the park planning, the government created a good development environment, promoted the park development at the policy and fund level. The park construction, management and operation were carried out in the manner of "government setting up platform and enterprises playing". Jiangyang District attached great importance to the construction of agricultural science and technology parks, which are mainly manifested in the following aspects. (i) Jiangyang District established a leading group for the park, and successively transferred personnel to form management service agencies such as the Management Committee of the Modern Agricultural Development Zone of Luzhou Laojiao Group in Sichuan Province, and the Management Committee of the Modern Agricultural Park of Jiangyang District, Luzhou City, and established a corresponding coordination work leading group in the corresponding towns. (ii) The district government and Luzhou Laojiao Group jointly invested 10 million yuan to establish Luzhou Red Sorghum Modern Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., and Jiangyang District State-owned Company funded to set up Luzhou Dongyunba Modern Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., to realize the corporate operation of the agricultural industry in the park. (iii) Jiangyang District issued a series of preferential policies and support measures. In terms of scientific and technological innovation, it has successively introduced preferential policies to support the construction and development of science and technology special commissioners, expert courtyards, star creation world, and engineering technology research centers. In terms of capital investment, Jiangyang District promptly issued policy documents such as special financial funds, integration of agricultural funds, and preferential policies for investment attraction and promotion. Through applying for national, provincial and municipal financial support funds for agriculture, various infrastructure and industrial development special funds, and municipal and district government investment and financing guarantees, it has effectively ensured the capital guarantee for investment and construction in core areas and demonstration areas.

3.2.2

Enterprise leading and government-enterprise cooperation are an important support for the park development. As investment and market entities, leading agricultural enterprises should give full play to the effects of scale, agglomeration, and demonstrative radiation, so as to drive the economic development of the surrounding areas. Jiangyang District attached great importance to government-enterprise cooperation to promote the park construction. As a national-level agricultural industrialization leader, Luzhou Laojiao Group, on the one hand, regards the park as a raw grain base for the company to build high-end liquor, successfully transformed multiple new sorghum varieties in the park, developed order production, and established an interest linkage mechanism among companies, farmers’ cooperatives, and growers. On the other hand, relying on the market-oriented operation of Luzhou Laojiao Group, a concentrated wine industry development zone was built in Huangyi Town, forming a complete liquor industry chain, integrating the liquor industry with Huangyi Town, and realizing the integration of industry and city and promoting the modern agriculture with liquor industry. Dongyunba Modern Agricultural Park integrates the seven administrative villages of Fenshuiling Town and Mituo Town into one, realizing the integration of industry and village. Through measures such as land transfer, centralized relocation of farmers, and local employment, the park not only solves the settlement of land-lost farmers in the park, but also attracts nearly 20 000 rural surplus laborers to the park, which solves several problems in rural development.

3.2.3

Cooperation between research institutions and enterprises and technological innovation provide technical support for the park development. The park management committee should actively guide leading enterprises to continue to deepen technical cooperation with colleges and universities, increase investment in science and technology, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and promote the long-term development of science and technology parks through continuous optimization of talents, technology, and modern marketing methods. For many years, the agricultural parks and related enterprises in Jiangyang District have increased their connections with Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Southwest University, and other colleges and universities. They jointly established agricultural science and technology expert courtyards, innovative scientific research institutions, industrial innovation alliances and other cooperation platforms, actively demonstrated and promoted new technologies, new varieties, and new models, and jointly implemented relevant industry-university-research projects. The pace of agricultural science and technology innovation and achievement transformation in Jiangyang District has been accelerating. It has become an important transformation base for new technologies and new varieties of relevant agricultural research institutes and new achievements, which has effectively promoted the development of modern agriculture.

3.2.4

Farmer participation and industrialized operation are inevitable requirements for the park development. The park should integrate social resources, give full play to the advantages of farmers’ professional cooperative organizations, and optimize the allocation of production factors such as production equipment, human resources, and market supplies. Through labor and employment, private-enterprise cooperation, mutual fund assistance,

etc.

, the cooperative organization will be enlarged and strengthened, so that farmers can participate more in all aspects of the construction of the science and technology parks, so that farmers can share the development achievements of the park, and ultimately achieve a "win-win". Huangyi Demonstration Area mobilizes, guides and helps farmers to form professional cooperatives for organic sorghum production in accordance with the idea of "relying on leading enterprises, cultivating specialized cooperation, uniting farmers, building bases, strengthening standards, promoting organic products, enhancing brands, enriching farmers, and rejuvenating the rural areas". Luzhou Laojiao Company has transformed from a simple agricultural product purchase and sale relationship to a close or relatively close new type of interest cooperation relationship through orders and pre-purchase deposits, which has promoted the industrial development of the park and enhanced the ability of farmers in the park to increase income and get rich. Dong Yunba Demonstration Area has introduced leading enterprises such as Shandong Shouguang Vegetable Industry Group, Chongqing Hengshan Culture Company, and Sichuan Senyan Agriculture Co., Ltd. to create a model. At the same time, it actively cultivates local enterprises such as Luzhou Luyang Modern Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. and Sunshine Company, and supports new business entities such as professional cooperatives and large growers. Relying on the agricultural and sideline product processing center, it has attracted Luzhou Taifeng Seed Industry Co., Ltd., Luzhou Zhuxin Food Co., Ltd. and other agricultural product processing enterprises to settle in, vigorously develop storage and distribution, cold chain logistics and other business formats, and realize direct sales of agricultural products in the park to Hong Kong and Macau. In addition, it has registered trademarks such as "Dongyunba", "Jiangzhiyang", "Sanli", and cultivated corporate brands such as Denggui, Zhuxin, and Taifeng. Furthermore, the park has introduced and cultivated more than 40 new business entities, promoted the operation model of "large parks, small owners", and vigorously developed (10-50)×667 mfamily farms and large growers to stimulate the vitality of family businesses. Residents in the jurisdiction of the park can use land to buy shares, and they can get 4 kinds of income annually, such as "guaranteed income+profitable dividends+work in the park+ farmhouse operation income". In 2019, the per capita disposable income of farmers in the park reached 25 200 yuan, 5 102 yuan higher than the 20 098 yuan per capita disposable income of farmers in Jiangyang District.

3.3 Comparison with surrounding national and provincial agricultural science and technology parks

3.3.1

Basic situation of the surrounding national agricultural science and technology parks. The surrounding national agricultural science and technology parks include Sichuan Yibin National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, Sichuan Neijiang National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, Chongqing Yongchuan National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, Chongqing Jiangjin National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, as listed in Table 1.

3.3.2

Comparison with the 18 provincial agricultural science and technology parks in Sichuan Province. In the comprehensive evaluation of the 93 provincial agricultural science and technology parks in Sichuan Province in 2020, the agricultural science and technology park of Jiangyang District was rated as excellent (ranked 17). As indicated in Table 2, Jiangyang Park has invested a lot in the construction of scientific and technological projects and platforms, formed more standards and regulations and introduced and promoted more scientific and technological achievements, and the total output value of the park has obvious advantages. However, the investment in R&D expenditure and the introduction of experts is relatively low, the concentration of innovation subjects is not high, the number of high-tech enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is small, the output of invention patents and "three products and one indication" (pollution-free agricultural products, green food, organic agricultural products and geographical indications of agricultural products) is relatively small, and it needs to be strengthened to drive increase of farmers’ income.

3.3.3

Comparison with national agricultural science and technology parks in Sichuan Province. As shown in Table 3, Jiangyang Park is still far from the national park in terms of innovation investment, entity gathering, transformation and promotion,

etc.

It is urgent to increase R&D investment, vigorously attract and cultivate enterprises, and focus on the introduction and demonstration of achievements. Since the wine processing output benefit of the concentrated wine industry development area was included, in addition to the suburban agricultural industry structure in Jiangyang District, the per capita income level was relatively high, and the economic benefits of the park showed obvious comparative advantages.

4 Existing problems

4.1 Insufficient industry-university-research integration

The innovation transformation carriers and platforms in the park have realized certain development, but they have not yet formed a system. It is necessary to further attract large universities and institutes to substantively settle in the park to build R&D platforms. The enterprises (owners), professional cooperatives, and farmers in the park have insufficient understanding and attention to the leading role of modern agricultural technology, lag behind in the thought of transforming traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and industry-university-research integration is still very loose. It is urgently necessary to update innovation concepts, build innovation platforms, activate innovation mechanisms, integrate innovation resources, share innovation results, and promote the in-depth industry-university-research-application integration.

4.2 Low level of agricultural intensification

Few enterprises have settled in the park, the concentration of high-tech enterprises is seriously insufficient, technology is not intensive, and the degree of industrial agglomeration is low. As a result, the fruit and vegetable industry in the park is still at the middle and low end of the value chain. The added value of the industry is low, the competitiveness is low, and the scale effect is weak. The vegetable and fruit industry has much room for improvement in terms of innovation capability, industrial chain extension and comprehensive benefits. It is necessary to pertinently attract technology-based leading enterprises. Especially, it is necessary to strengthen efforts to enhance the innovation capabilities of enterprises, reduce production and circulation costs, and increase intensification and economic benefits.

4.3 Weak functions of public service platforms

The park’s public services, entrepreneurial incubation, display and demonstration, transformation and promotion, and technology training have been completed, but actually they are not yet well established. High-efficiency agriculture and high-end agricultural scenes that highlight the park’s characteristics and highlights need to be further developed, enriched and improved.

4.4 Weak brand effect

In the fruit and vegetable industry, there are problems such as no well-known brand, no social reputation and low recognition,

etc.

It is necessary to further increase the promotion and cultivation of the brand. Brand effects such as the regional public brand of "Jiangzhiyang" agricultural products, Dongyunba’s green product origin certification brand, and well-known trademarks have not yet been fully manifested. The utilization rate of public brands by enterprises, professional cooperatives, and farmers is low. It is necessary to promptly establish a mechanism for mutual recognition and mutual use of brand trademarks.

4.5 Insufficient exploration of tourism resources

The local characteristic tourism history and culture are not studied deeply, not explored enough, and lack display and attractiveness. The park is still not deeply integrated with the tourism resources such as wine city culture, red tourism culture, umbrella culture, eco-tourism culture, and modern urban agricultural culture. The experience mode of leisure sightseeing tourism is relatively monotonous, the content is not rich enough, and the attraction is low. The overall benefits of the tourism industry in the park account for only a small proportion.

5 Development recommendations

5.1 Gathering scientific and technological resources, enhancing scientific and technological support

It is recommended to adhere to the guidance of science and technology, focus on guiding innovation elements to gather in the park, build an innovation platform, improve service capabilities, and achieve the organic unity of making achievements and applying achievements. (i) Jiangyang District should strengthen scientific and technological investment, activate the employment mechanism, create a good working environment and living conditions, play the leading role of high-end talents, encourage scientific and technical personnel to research and develop new varieties and technologies, strengthen the development of deep processing technology for agricultural and sideline products, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the park. (ii) It should cooperate closely with colleges and universities, based on the long-term development of the park, build a large research and development platform, carry out large-scale cooperation in science and technology, and build agricultural scientific research bases and training bases. (iii) It should rely on innovation and entrepreneurship incubation platforms and carriers such as mass innovation spaces at all levels and star creation world, combine with the needs of industrial development and production practices, take improving farmers’ scientific and technological application capabilities as the goal, and jointly cultivate a large number of local scientific and technological talents and technical experts, and promote deep industry-university-research integration.

5.2 Strengthening the high-quality development of the park economy

Jiangyang District should adhere to the concept of "ecology first, green development", and strive to promote the development of the park toward high-end, agglomeration, integration, and green development. Besides, it should concentrate efforts to carry out quality system certification, food safety certification, strengthen standardized production, and implement high-quality, efficient, ecological, and safe green production models for farming, planting, management, and harvesting, to promote the upgrading of superior industries such as high-quality vegetables and characteristic fruits in Jiangyang District. Also, it should gradually promote the development of urban modern agriculture and brand agriculture, realize the deep integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and comprehensively improve the level of modern agriculture. (i) It is recommended to make good use of the city card of "China Wine City" through the excavation and in-depth integration of tourism cultural resources, to further enhance the value of liquor brands such as "Luzhou Laojiao" and "Lang Wine", enhance the reputation of public brands such as "Jiangzhiyang" and "Dongyunba", to play the role of intangible cultural heritage and well-known brands such as Lugui, Denggui, and Fenshui oiled paper umbrella. (ii) It is recommended to actively cultivate various types of new business entities, and use "company+base+farmer", "company+farmer cooperative+farmer" modes to guide the surrounding areas to transform towards scale, specialization, standardization, high efficiency, and ecological development, promote the coordinated development of pre-production, production, and post-production, improve the technical content and added value of products, and greatly enhance the product competitiveness of the park. (iii) Jiangyang District should strengthen investment promotion and innovation consciousness of leading enterprises. Through focusing on industry, it is recommended to cultivate new innovation entities and stimulate new business formats and modes. Combining the application of new generation information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and the IoT, it is recommended to innovate the logistics system, highlight the innovation chain, support the industrial chain, activate the talent chain, enhance the value chain, and share the benefit chain, so as to build the park into a highland for modern agricultural innovation-driven development, and properly promote the high-quality economic development of the park.

5.3 Building a national 4A-level excellent scenic spot

Taking the opportunity of Dongyunba Modern Agricultural Park to be rated as a national 4A scenic spot in 2020, Jiangyang District should deeply explore the historical and cultural resources of China’s wine city culture, red culture, hometown of Dong Yun (an important minister of the Shu Han Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms period), Fenshui oiled paper umbrella, Zhangba longan, Hejiang lychee,

etc.

Combining the park’s modern agricultural science and technology display and humanistic landscape, it is recommended to create leisure sightseeing agriculture and rural tourism, and improve service quality, to make the park become a hot spot and economic growth point in the tourism industry of the "China Wine City Drunken Beauty Luzhou", and diversify channels to increase the income of farmers.